A new direction for the Nieman Watchdog ProjectCOMMENTARYThe Nieman Watchdog Project is changing course. Starting on Aug. 27, Watchdog stories will find a new home in Nieman Reports, the publication that has documented the most important shifts in journalism for the past 65 years. Niemanwatchdog.org will remain online as an archive of the articles it ran in the past eight years. In addition, the Watchdog Project will be supporting a new Nieman Fellowship and expanding its programming on accountability journalism.

Looking back at Nieman WatchdogCOMMENTARY | August 20, 2012Barry Sussman reflects on the accomplishments of the Nieman Watchdog website, and the challenges to watchdog journalism that remain ahead.

‘Our job was to approve drugs’ | Intimidation, retaliation and marginalizing of safety at the FDACOMMENTARY
The email monitoring and spying at the Food and Drug Administration was aimed at suppressing the safety opinions of people whose job was to give their safety opinions. Writer Martha Rosenberg interviews Ronald Kavanagh, a former FDA reviewer.

Food for thought | Are the hunger wars coming?COMMENTARY
Michael Klare write that if history is any guide, rising food prices caused by drought will also lead to widespread social unrest and violent conflict.

Normalizing stagnation | The Fed’s 2% inflation target is a cruel trapCOMMENTARY
Who supports it? The same economists who got us into this mess. But Tom Palley writes that the Fed's inappropriate fixation on low inflation dooms us to permanent wage stagnation and unemployment far in excess of full employment.

Deficit hysteria | Four federal spending myths that won't dieCOMMENTARY
These stubborn myths, too often propagated rather than debunked by the mainstream media, lead to poor policy proposals based on misplaced fears.

Revisiting "America: What Went Wrong" | There's a class war, all right. Guess who's winning.COMMENTARY
Noted journalist Phil Meyer calls on reporters to follow the example of Barlett and Steele and see the patterns, the underlying structures that created and are perpetuating so much inequality.

Abysmal, inept coverage | Lessons on covering politics from the late David Foster WallaceCOMMENTARY
Rule One in covering the presidential campaign, writes Henry Banta, has been to not allow information – even important information – to trump the entertainment factor, especially not in economics reporting. Time to do away with Rule One, Banta says, and stop fearing boredom.

| The press needs to expose the siege of democracy, not abet itCOMMENTARY
John Hanrahan writes: ‘We have become overly fearful, willing to surrender many core freedoms for the illusion of absolute security…We as a nation are less free than we were 11 years ago. And the mainstream press needs to say so, needs to explore this in news articles, as well as editorially and on the op-ed pages and in the broadcast media.’